Q4 2025 Chase Freedom Categories: Where to Earn 5x This Quarter
If you’re into travel hacking (or just want to maximize your everyday credit card rewards), the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex cards remain some of the best no-annual-fee cards in the game.
For Q4 2025 (October 1 through December 31), you can earn 5× Ultimate Rewards points (or 5% cash back) in select rotating bonus categories — on up to $1,500 in combined purchases once you activate in your Chase account.
The official Q4 2025 Chase Freedom categories are:
- Chase Travel
- Department Stores
- Old Navy
- PayPal (December only)
I’ll be honest – I was a little disappointed seeing these categories. In previous years, we’ve seen wholesale as a Q4 category, which was a good chance to stock up on household goods at Costco. For the last two years, PayPal has been a Q4 5x category for the whole quarter, making it a great option for Black Friday and holiday shopping. December only limits some of that opportunity.
Still, that’s up to 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points (or $75) per card if you max it out — or even more if you stack those points with other Chase cards for big travel redemptions. Let’s break it down.
What Are the Chase Freedom Quarterly Categories?
Each quarter, Chase assigns a few bonus categories where Freedom and Freedom Flex cards earn 5× instead of the typical 1× (or base rate earning). To unlock that, you need to activate the categories in your Chase account. This can be done on the app or online. And if you have both cards, the categories need to be activated separately on each card.
If you hold both Freedom and Freedom Flex, you can earn up to 15,000 points ($150 equivalent) in the quarter (7,500 per card). Both P2 and I hold both of these cards, so if it’s a category where we’ll spend, that’s a potential 30,000 points per quarter for our travel points fund.
Q4 2025 Breakdown: What Qualifies & How to Use It
Chase Travel
- Only travel booked through ChaseTravel.com or via the phone number on your card’s back qualifies for 5×.
- Eligible travel includes flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, tours, and activities.
- Be careful: If you use points for part of the booking, the portion paid with points won’t count.
- Purchases made directly with airlines, hotels, or other travel sites (not via Chase Travel) typically won’t earn 5×.
Takeaway: If you have any planned travel this fall or winter, you may want to consider routing it through Chase’s travel portal to get bonus points. Personally, I prefer booking direct with airlines/hotels for better customer service in case of schedule changes, but if you value the bonus, this may be a good time to test Chase Travel.
Department Stores
- Traditional department stores with a broad mix of inventory (apparel, home goods, electronics, etc.) generally qualify.
- Both in-store and online purchases should count, so long as they code correctly.
- Be cautious: Big-box superstores, discount chains, and online marketplaces often don’t count (or code differently).
- Gift card purchases might or might not code as “department store” — check how they code on your statement.
This is a useful category for holiday shopping — gifts, décor, home products — especially at major department store chains.
If you are planning to purchase gift cards to get your maximum 5x points, I’d suggest testing a gift card at a small amount to see how it codes rather than putting all your eggs in one basket and then finding out that $500 gift card purchase only earned you 1x Ultimate Rewards points.
Many department stores (like Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Saks, etc.) are on Rakuten and / or the airline shopping portals so make sure you have your browser extensions installed when you’re shopping to earn the maximum amount of points.
Old Navy
- Purchases at Old Navy (online or in-store) will qualify.
- Note: Sister brands (e.g. Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta) do not count toward Old Navy’s 5×.
- Transactions via third-party checkout platforms (e.g. split payments, installment services) might be excluded or code differently.
Old Navy is very specific – it’s not just clothing stores earning 5x. It seems like Chase is leaning into specific partnerships for their 5x categories. In 2024, they had a quarter where McDonald’s earned 5x points – not fast food or restaurants.
If you expect to buy clothing basics this quarter, look at Old Navy as a store for 5×. Personally, I don’t think I’ve spent anywhere close to $1,500 at Old Navy in my lifetime, but if it’s a store you definitely shop at, it could be a good opportunity to stock up. You could also buy gift cards from Old Navy directly if you know you will have future use for the cards.
Old Navy is on my favorite travel hacking app, United MileagePlus X, so check it out if you’re planning to shop this quarter for even more earnings on top of your 5x points. Old Navy is also on Rakuten so you can earn even more points on your purchases.
PayPal (December Only)
- During December, purchases made via PayPal using your Chase Freedom card will earn 5×.
- If PayPal is used for merchants eligible under other 5× categories, you’ll still get 5×.
- Keep in mind: Some PayPal uses are excluded (e.g. certain P2P transfers, money sending, or Xoom) — check your statement.
Strategy: If a merchant you plan to shop with accepts PayPal, using PayPal in December might help you pick up extra bonus points on top of your regular holiday shopping.
PayPal will likely be how we get most of our points as we don’t typically shop at department stores or Old Navy, and we’d rather book travel directly with hotels and airlines. Many online stores take PayPal, so when you’re shopping online in December, look for that option as you checkout and make sure it’s linked to your Freedom or Freedom Flex cards.
PayPal also sells gift cards directly, so you can look at those for an opportunity to earn 5x on purchases you’d already be making in the future.
How to Turn Freedom Points into Travel
This is where the real fun begins for points and miles enthusiasts:
- By default, your Freedom / Freedom Flex earnings are “cash back” (or 1× base). But if you also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred, you can combine or transfer points into those accounts. Having one of these accounts gives you access to the transfer partners through the Ultimate Rewards portal
- From there, redeem through the Ultimate Rewards portal (which often gives 25–50% extra value) or transfer 1:1 to airline/hotel partners (e.g. Hyatt, United, Southwest). There are also periodic times throughout the year where there are elevated transfer offers (we personally took advantage of a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott last year).
- For perspective: 7,500 bonus points from maxing out Q4 = $75 in cash back — or often substantially more in travel value when transferred or redeemed via a premium card.
Strategy Tips to Max Out Q4 Categories
- Activate early. Don’t wait — activate the bonus categories as soon as possible. You don’t want to spend on all these categories and realize later you forgot to activate and you only earned 1x.
- Front-load purchases if needed. If you expect lighter spending later, use department stores or Old Navy earlier in the quarter.
- Route travel carefully. Be sure travel bookings go through ChaseTravel.com to get 5×.
- Use PayPal strategically in December. If a merchant accepts it, funnel purchases through PayPal to capture extra 5×.
- Watch how things code. After your first few big purchases, check how they landed (via statement). If one didn’t code as 5×, you might reclassify or dispute.
- Avoid wasted spend. Don’t force purchases just to hit $1,500 — stick with things you were going to buy anyway (gifts, clothing, travel, home goods).
- Track your progress. Use Chase’s in-app tracker or set reminders so you know how much of the $1,500 cap is remaining.
Final Thoughts: Q4 2025 Chase Freedom Categories
The Q4 2025 lineup is an interesting one (especially with the “Chase Travel” bonus). Department stores are a natural fit for holiday shopping, while Old Navy is very specific (but useful for some). The limited December PayPal window feels restrictive compared to past years, but it’s still one of the easiest ways to rack up 5×.
If you stack your Freedom and Freedom Flex points earning with a Chase travel card, the points you earn this quarter will go a lot further than just $75 — turning into flights, hotels, or big savings.
Curious what other quarters have had as 5x categories? Look back at our previous posts!